IRANIAN EMBASSY SIEGE LONDON MAY 1980 1980S ENGLANDIranian Embassy siege London England 5th May 1980. Armed SAS officers watch s a hostage escapes from burning building. The Iranian hostage-takers had opposed Ayatollah Khomeini and demanded freedom for the southern Iranian province of Khuzestan. But their cause was soon forgotten when war broke out between Iran and Iraq in late 1980 - a conflict that was to last eight years.